Mercedes has officially lodged two protests against the result of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, in which Max Verstappen claimed victory and the World Championship.
Verstappen claimed a last lap win over Hamilton, but the race ended in a controversial manner after the FIA restarted the race with just one lap left following a brief Safety Car period for Nicholas Latifi’s crash.
Hamilton had been leading prior to the restart, but was powerless to stop Verstappen who grabbed the lead into Turn 5, and stayed ahead on fresher and softer tyres.
Confusion occurred when the FIA initially told un-lapped cars to remain in position, but moments before the Safety Car peeled off into the pits, the notice for lapped cars to overtake was given, but only to those between Hamilton and Verstappen.
That meant several other un-lapped cars remained in position. Article 48.12 of the Sporting Regulations stipulates that “any cars that have been lapped by the leader will be required to pass the cars on the lead lap and the safety car.”
“Once the last lapped car has passed the leader the safety car will return to the pits at the end of the following lap.”
The Safety Car came into the pits at the end of the same lap rather than the following lap.
A second protest has been issued in relation to Article 48.8, which stipulates that a car cannot overtake the Safety Car, or lead car, prior to the Safety Car line. Verstappen was seen to have pulled alongside Hamilton during the restart and nudged ahead of his rival at one point.
“No driver may overtake another car on the track, including the safety car, until he passes the Line (see Article 5.3) for the first time after the safety car has returned to the pits.”
Merc have been robbed. They relied on the rules to make their decision not to pit and 100% if only half the cars were allowed to pit they would have changed to new tyres… but that rule doesn’t exist!!!
Who would watch football if the ref could arbitrarily decide to ignore the ‘off side rule’ or tennis if the umpire could arbitrarily decide to use the ‘doubles’ markings in a singles match to call the ball in.
This unfair result must be reversed and the idiots who have been mis applying the rules sacked!!!
If not, formula 1 ceases to be a completion between drivers and their engineering teams and becomes a mere spectacle who’s outcome is decided arbitrarily by a bunch of beaurocrats. Who wants to watch that?
Guys Max won fair. The FIA tried to help me with iligal overtake to not take any Actions and let that slip completely. So happy cuzz ofcourse he pushed me of the track but they didn’t let me box I didn’t get fresh tires the FIA really tried to change the overtake rules with the safety car but it would been a bit too obvious. We got Connolly he might be able to get us that win with a time penalty for the safety car. We payed em I get my 8th title cuzz in maFIA (Mercedes federation in asisting we trust.) They revert the Max title. The best thing is not winning the title on track but next to it with procedures it’s what we wanted. sadly Max didn’t so our plan with crashing him of track and Bottas couldn’t reach him to crash him off. But guys Toto and FIA will find a way I trust it.
what a bunch of cry babyes…
when the rules where against max they where “fair” not…. they’r not
i had a better opinion about the german manufacturer. my mistake!
People just want consistency and a steward that isn’t influenced by the teams. Masi fails spectacularly in that regard.
Masi has been a joke. No consistency at all. He’s been making it up as he goes all season and lets Toto and Horner influence him in every race. What a shame he decided the title.
Sorry but rules are rules and they have not been applied in this case. Macie’s motive, to allow us to watch a final lap ‘race’ was arguably pure, although since Max had the newer, faster tyres, this was cleary misguided. However, the rules state that ‘“any cars that have been lapped by the leader will be required to pass the cars on the lead lap and the safety car.” and that did not happen. There is no other decision possible than the race should have finished under the safety car and hence Lewis is world champion. Either the FIA will decide this for themselves or a court will do it for them.
I may have been able to find a modicum of sympathy for Hamilton’s supporters had they complained about the rules when it was their man who benefitted. Just a week ago they moaned over Verstappen being able to change tyres under red flag conditions, yet showed no qualms after Imola, where the same rules allowed Hamilton to have his car repaired after he binned it and be able to come back from nearly a lap behind with a damaged car to finish second with a car fit for racing.
Hamilton has been given favourable decisions more than most drivers. Beneficial rulings have been bestowed upon him many times over the years, during this season, and indeed earlier in this very race, but they don’t complain about any of those.